Origin of "jemhadar"

[Jem'hadar]

I don't mean the fictional origin of the jemhadar race in Star Trek, but rather the actual origin of the name.

I was in Delhi, India recently & visited their National Museum. They have a huge collection of antique weapons, mostly swords, daggers & spears. There is a type of vicious-looking Indian dagger called "jamadar." It's possible this was the origin of the Star Trek jemhadar name.

Also, during the British Raj days, they had a native Indian army called sepoys. One rank in the sepoys was a jemadar or lieutenant. It's also possible this where they got the name.

See: http://dict.die.net/jamadar/

Also, there is a Hindi/Bengali word called "firingi" which sounds a lot like ferengi. Firingi means foreigner & was often used derogatorily by Indians to describe Portugese & British traders. Could this word have been the origin of the name "ferengi?"

[REG]

Did you know how Roddenberry got "Klingon"?

[Owen E Oulton]

Well, the "cop friend named Clingan" is entirely fictional - Roddenberry didn't create the Klingons, and didn't name them. Gene L. Coon did - they were created as an inexpensive (i.e. standard makeup only, no prostheses) alternative to Romulans, hence the TOS "space Mongol" look concocted by Freddie Philips and John "Kor" Collicos. Roddenberry reportedly hated the Klingons, which is why he took the opportunity to "reimagine" them for STTMP. His public rationalisation regarding the change in appearance - "that's the way we always wanted to do them, we just couldn't afford it" - is an out-and-out falsehood.

I don't know about the Jem'Hadar/jamadar connection, but it has just enough ring of reasonableness to it to be believable. I do know where the name Ferengi came from, though. It's a Hindi corruption of the English word "foreigner," and was applied to Portugese traders by their Indian (that's real Indians, from India, as opposed to Native 'Murricans) customers. It was not a polite term.

[Tobian]

Well both Ferengi and Jem Hadar seem to have good explanations there! Both extremelly fitting! The Bajoran society and religion aslo had strong ties to India With terms like Veddek, Prylar, Ranjen and even the 'Bajoran Festival of lights' Having blatant ties to ancient Hindu and Buhdist traditions, especially including several backgrounds that were seen on the show being very reminiscient of Stuppa's from India and the far east.. Strange they seem to get allot of their names from that region, but then I guess it's sufficiently removed from most 'western' societies to remain enigmatic.

[Imagus]

As I understand it, "Klingon" was a temporary name they came up with until somebody thought of something better - I guess nobody did

If it's any help on the Jem'hadar front, a "Jemadar" was a Sepoy officer rank in the Indian Army in the early nineteenth century (I think it technically applied to native Madrasi troops). It was equivalent to a Lieutenant, and ranked immediately below "Subadar" (another possible alien race!).

I've heard the Indian derivation of Ferengi before and it makes perfect sense to me!

[aelius]

Actually, Subadar has already been appropriated by the Angosian military for their supersoldiers. This was the rank achieved by Roga Danar before he was confined to the Lunar 5 facility.

[Space_Cadet]

I think Pakistanni friend told me that Frengi (sp) was Urdoo for greed or something.